This I Believe

Life is an amazing thing. It can be filled with joy and pain, happiness and sorrow. I believe that life should not be taken for granted. I did not realize this until someone very close to me: my brother, tried to commit suicide which has lead to hospitals, pills and a complete deconstruction to the life I once lived.

The incident has changed my life and even me as a person dramatically. I don’t realize how important family really is. That being broken inside and you find out that one day things can be great and the next life disappears. Life can fly by with school, homework and hanging with friends but time just stops. Life is a gift and should not be wasted or used being mad or always playing life on the safe side. You should not let your life control what happens and spend too much time wondering or not enjoying it.

Once your life the things you do become much more important. I felt so angry, sad, confused. I was so afraid and most of all hurt. I felt the most pain I’ve ever felt as I was crushed inside and out. It impacted my health as well; I lost so much weight from dpression myself. That I became sick and never felt good. I thought it was my fault, and I had never cried so hard and so long with nothing to make me feel better. I really had to step back and reevaluate my relationship with my brother and be careful of what I said and how I acted.

My brother now is an amazing friend and is getting help. He visits a counselor every week, and has special medication to help him think better and become less depressed. I talk to him much more frequently now and make sure he’s doing ok, but I always remember those times a few years ago that have left a permanent mark on not just me but my family.

Life is a journey that’s full of severe up’s and down’s. It can be so good and then flip and feel so bad. Life is precious and enjoyable. I now enjoy the beauty of life and all of its aspects. Respect life for what it offers and more so for what it is. Don’t take it for granted for life is precious, life is good.

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Top 100 Essays USB Drive

This USB drive contains 100 of the top This I Believe audio broadcasts of the last ten years, plus some favorites from Edward R. Murrow's radio series of the 1950s. It's perfect for personal or classroom use! Click here to learn more.

This week’s essay

Growing up in the former Yugoslavia, lawyer Djenita Pasic enjoyed the peace of her religiously diverse country. But after the fall of communism and the outbreak of the Bosnian War, Pasic was forced to reevaluate her ideas about religion and tolerance. Click here to read her essay.